摘要：The author discuss the main philosophical and sociological questions concerning the different approaches in the humanization of work. The author puts a crucial question: what are autonomous working groups? Are the autonomous groups one of the means for the »final liberation of work« or only one of the many newer mechanisms for the technologically determined change of the organization of production? The author discuss then the different approaches to the humanization of work which were developed in industrial sociology during the past decades concluding that the newer movement for introduction of autonomous working groups in production is only one of the organizational means for raising the level of production. But it doesn't mean that the investigation of conditions of introduction of autonomous working groups in production process is a fruitless research project and only that a researcher has to be aware of the inner limits of his own research. This conclusion is given in accordance with many research examples from industrial sociology emphasizing the humanistic character of qualitative analysis in this field of sociology.
